


Lucky Charm

by Nirukee



Category: League of Legends RPF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-02
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:26:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27836002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nirukee/pseuds/Nirukee
Summary: 2018 Fnatic roster comes back from a Korean bootcamp but their plane is delayed. They enjoy 24 hours of holidays in a country they never visited before.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 19
Collections: DreamServer 2020 Advent Event





	Lucky Charm

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I didn't know what to do with the roster changes so I decided to go back to an old roster at an inaccurate time XD I hope you'll enjoy!
> 
> This is day 2 of the DreamServer’s 2020 Advent Calendar fanfiction event.

It was December 2nd 2018 in Korea. Fnatic members were boarding the plane that would lead them back home, discussing how the bootcamp went. Caps was talking about one specific game with sOAZ, while Rekkles and Broxah were commenting on the other teams’ strategies. Hylissang had enough of the constant debriefing since they left the Summoner’s Rift, so he preferred to have a silly chat with Bwipo. As they were queuing to get into the plane, the Belgian looked at his ticket.  
“Oh we have a stop in Japan! Too bad we can’t stay longer than one hour there.”  
“At least we’ll get to see Tokyo from the airport. At what time do we land?”  
Bwipo quickly checked the time zone on his phone.   
“10 A.M.”  
“Ah it sucks, I guess it’s beautiful at night.”  
All six members of Fnatic were tired of the intense bootcamp. They were happy to go home and finally get some vacations. As they entered the plane, Caps, Rekkles, Broxah and Hylissang found their seats. They were in a four seats row, which left sOAZ and Bwipo sitting next to each other in a two seats row not too far from their teammates. Neither of the two toplaners was ecstatic about this, but they smiled at each other, trying to make things less awkward. Even though sOAZ recovered from his hand injury months ago and was again an active player, their relationship was still somewhat tense. But it was only a two hours flight, and the French fell asleep even before the plane took off. Bwipo felt relieved and soon closed his eyes as well. 

They landed in Tokyo and had quite an easy time finding their way in the airport. But soon enough, they realized something was wrong.   
“ _Passengers of flight n°908763, your attention please. Due to weather conditions, the departure time is delayed. Please go to an information desk for hotel registrations._ ”  
“Hotel registrations? How long are we staying here?” wondered Rekkles.  
Hylissang turned to Bwipo.  
“You totally jinxed it, man.”  
Their frustration of being stuck in the middle of a trip quickly turned into excitement. A weather trouble above the ocean just granted them 24 hours in Japan. As soon as they were done with administration, they took the subway with maps and flyers full of tourism tips in their hands. After scrolling through the pages, Caps and Rekkles were just as clueless about where to start. That’s why they decided to team up to randomly land in the center of Tokyo and go with whatever would meet their path. They asked their teammates if they wanted to join but they all wanted to have clearer plans than ‘go with the flow’. 

While Rekkles and Caps left the train, the midlaner gave a smile at their teammates, waving goodbye. Watching this, Broxah thought about the unlikeliness of the situation. Just hours ago, he didn’t imagine he would wave his friends goodbye to wander in an unknown city. He turned to his other friends.  
“Where are you guys going?”  
“I want to go to Akihabara. Weeb sOAZ is taking over.” replied the French toplaner.  
“What’s Akihabara?”  
“It’s the pop culture center, basically a manga, anime, and video game heaven. Do you want to come with me?”  
“Yeah, sure! Where do we stop?”  
“Where are we...We have to take another subway line at the next stop. Wait. No, it was two stations ago.”  
“What a start.” Broxah chuckled.  
Since their friends had to leave at the next station to go backwards, Bwipo and Hylissang didn’t have time to elaborate, but they told them they would go to Shibuya. 

. . . . . .

The support and his toplaner were amazed to take their first step out of the transportation. They were already pleasantly overwhelmed by the liveliness around them. High buildings, colorful signs, crowded streets buzzing with people. The sky was clear but the city was covered by a thin layer of snow. As neither of the pro players knew the Japanese language, they were fascinated by the foreign characters they could see everywhere. They walked for a few minutes, curiously looking all around them as if they were rediscovering what a city was. Soon, they met the cute face which practically made them choose Shibuya. There stood Hachiko, the legendary dog statue.   
“My respects, sir.” whispered Bwipo playfully to greet Hachiko.   
There was no snow on the dog, which meant some visitors already took time to sweep it off. The two friends stayed there for a moment. It really felt like a break. Their last holidays were far behind, and now they finally had a moment to just sit, contemplate their environment, look at people passing by, notice the thin clouds, take pictures of a dog statue, touch snow. While they were usually chatty, in this moment, the toplaner and the support didn’t need words. 

Suddenly, something caught Hylissang’s gaze.   
“Dude, look at that!”  
Bwipo’s brown eyes widened.   
“We have to do it!”

. . . . . .

As perfectly planned, Rekkles and Caps were wandering in the streets, admiring the mix between modern and historical features of Tokyo. They were walking, actively moving their rusty legs. Because of the cold, they both had rosy cheeks and were exhaling smoke at each breath. As they were crossing a park, Rekkles squatted to take some snow in his hands.   
“It’s weird to think that when I’ll be back in Sweden, it’ll already be snowy. I mean, it’s weird not to see the seasons changing there anymore.”  
Caps didn’t reply anything, and Rekkles stood up, dropping his snow, slightly embarrassed.   
“Um, sorry, I don’t know where this is coming from.”  
A big chunk of cold slammed his face. He turned to the mischievous midlaner who threw a snowball at him.   
“How fucking original from you.” he commented, while rubbing his cheek.   
The Dane was indeed used to throw snowballs at Rekkles in Berlin each time they happened to be outside in wintery times.   
“I restrained myself for an hour, that’s already something.” said Caps.  
As he was forming another snowball, he added:   
“But I feel you. Not really for the season change thing, but I feel like we’re at this moment of the League season where we’re all homesick.”  
He threw the new ball at Rekkles, who dodged it, but it ended up hitting a woman passing by. Both Caps’ and Rekkles’ eyes widened, and the ADC placed a hand over his mouth. The woman turned to see where the snowball came from and Caps stuttered a “S-Sorry! Gomenasai!”. She gave him a judgemental look before continuing her own way. The midlaner caressed his neck, awkward. Rekkles smiled at the sight of his adorable face. The two friends started walking again.   
“What are your plans when you get home?” the Swede asked.   
“I will sleep for an entire week, and then I’ll catch up with the birthdays. I missed three important birthdays and...we lost a game on each of these days. I just...I feel bad for not being here and not even winning for them.”  
“I remember, you told me about it.” Rekkles said, understanding. “It hurts but it's still worth it, right?”  
“Right”, smiled the Dane. 

As they arrived in a square, a delicious smell caught their attention to a street food truck. The cook just started his work. He was putting butter on large baking pans shaped in round rows. The butter was bubbling on the hot pans, making a soft sound. The two tourists decided to stay there to enjoy the show. The cook spread liquid dough all over the pans and the smell gradually turned into something close to salted waffles. He added different types of vegetables cut in dices, which created a beautiful look. The Dane and the Swede admired the cook’s expert movements, especially when it was time to turn the balls around in the pan. Within seconds, he flipped rows of creamy dough with his chopsticks, revealing the side which was already cooked. He rolled the balls regularly so that they were evenly cooked. It was already looking perfect, but the cook placed a bunch of balls in a takeaway box and added lines of sauce as the final touch.   
“Have you ever tried these?” asked Rekkles to his teammate.  
Caps nodded a no. The ADC unfolded a charming smile and asked the cook two boxes, awkwardly gesturing to make sure he was understood. 

Rekkles and Caps found a bench nearby and stayed there to enjoy their delicious food. They didn’t do much exercise during the bootcamp, so walking one hour was already quite tiring for them. Caps looked happy to be here and it was pretty contagious. Rekkles was happy to be by his side, to enjoy the very beginning of the holidays with him.   
“Where do you want to go next?” the midlaner asked.   
“I’d like to buy a souvenir for my sister.”  
“Okay so...I guess we’re looking for a shopping mall now?”  
Rekkles nodded. Once again, they opted for the adventurous style and searched for the shopping mall without Google’s help. They stopped at a pedestrian crossing, waiting for their turn. Looking across the street, they saw people driving karts in the middle of the regular car traffic, in a very Mario Kart way. Caps wrinkled his eyes.  
“Is that...Bwipo and Hyli?”  
He received a confirmation as their friends waved at them, each one on a different kart. Rekkles and Caps laughed at another unlikely event of the day. They watched their teammates’ drive away until they couldn’t see them anymore. The light turned green for them, and eventually, they found a shopping mall a few blocks further. There, they visited several shops, amazed to see so many unseen and colorful products. Rekkles ended up buying a cute teddy bear for his sister. The two friends turned left in the shopping mall and they were suddenly facing a roller coaster. To stay true to their spontaneous mood, they had to go on and take a ride on the roller coaster. 

Both of them were pretty into theme parks, so they shared a big smile as the queue ended, as they were hopping on the train and pulling down the security belt. They enjoyed the slight apprehension of the first slow rise, with a nice view on the neighborhood. Then, the first slope arrived, followed by more and more intense loopings. Rekkles’ blue eyes were crying because of the speed, while Caps was laughing hard, half happy, half nerve-breaked about the thrill. As the train stopped, the two friends shared another laugh. The ride was quite refreshing. 

. . . . . .

Meanwhile, sOAZ and Broxah were done fanboying over the rightly named weeb heaven. They had bought merchandise for themselves, and they were now entering a Neko Café. As they were taking their shoes off in the entrance, a black and white cat with semi-long hair was staring at them with his yellow demonic eyes. The two friends proceeded carefully to join the stairs. Most of the cats were on the second floor, where the teammates found a table near the window. Three of the felines were peacefully sleeping at random places in the room. Another one was overly energized and kept running around, scratching the cat tree, or a poor stuffed mouse which was visibly used to go through those energy peaks. Another one was very affectionate, and kept going between the tables to ask for more cuddles. He welcomed Broxah and sOAZ with aggressively loving head pushes against their legs. The teammates welcomed him as well, letting their fingers pet the short but somehow incredibly soft cat hair. The cat was mostly white, with a few brownish tabby spots. A waitress came to their table, taking their order. A moment later, the French and the Dane were sipping hot beverages, admiring the outside view of the city and the inside view of the room full of cats. 

“What will you do when you come home?” sOAZ asked. “No, wait, let me rephrase. What are you gonna eat when you come home?”  
Broxah chuckled.  
“My girlfriend’s cookies, hopefully. She is not the greatest cook, but she does those excellent chocolate cookies. We didn’t plan much for when I’m back, but one thing really kept coming in my mind lately. There’s a park in my hometown, where it’s very nice to run. It’s very calm and peaceful, so I can’t wait to go back there with her, do some exercise, and, you know. Just enjoy the place.”  
sOAZ smiled.   
“It does sound nice.”  
He took a sip of coffee before saying:  
“As for me, you can’t imagine how I miss raclette cheese. I mean, it’s practically a tradition in France when the days get cold, to eat raclette with cold meats, potatoes and pickles, with your friends and family. I know it sounds silly but I didn’t realize how food makes me feel at home.”  
“I totally get it.” replied Broxah in a kind tone.  
He looked at his teammate with interest. sOAZ was quite a reserved person. He was easy to talk to and the jungler had no trouble becoming friends with him. But the toplaner was never sharing anything too personal. The Dane had soon understood there was a wall of privacy he shouldn’t cross and he respected that entirely. He knew almost nothing of the French’s social circles in his home country. He didn’t know if there was a significant other waiting for him, maybe waiting to welcome him at the airport. He might never know but he didn’t mind. He just found it interestingly unexpected, coming from a talkative person such as sOAZ. 

Both of their phones buzzed. They received a text from Hylissang saying: “Let’s dine and go to the Tokyo Sky Tree all together tonight. Meet here at 8 P.M.” The address of a Soba restaurant was pinned to the message. 

. . . . . .

So they did, the six Fnatic members met up over Soba bowls. Each duo shared its journey in Tokyo: the joys, the curiosity, the pain in their legs after a day of walking.  
“After that, we went to a public bath,” told Caps. “It was funny, Rekkles had patches all over his arms.”  
“You have 24 hours in Japan and you guys decide to use this time to get undressed in front of each other?” Bwipo laughed.   
“I respect that. I mean, we’re talking about Japanese baths.” pointed Broxah.   
When Hylissang and Bwipo talked about their karting session, sOAZ was the most jealous.   
“Man, I wish I did that too!”  
The support smiled. He felt like he made the right choices today. In fact, he didn’t invite his teammates to eat Soba for no reason either. It was surely delicious, but he also read somewhere that the long pasta were viewed as a symbol of longevity and good luck. 

. . . . . .

The team headed for the famous viewing point. They walked past the shops at the foot of the tower, which got Bwipo distracted. He stopped to take the picture of a Pokémon statue, and when he turned around, all of his teammates were gone. He walked faster towards the Tower’s entrance, hoping to find them. When he reached it, he only found sOAZ.   
“I lost everyone.” said the Belgian.  
“Yeah, me too. I guess they already took the elevator.”  
The familiar awkward silence between them took over as they started queuing for the elevator. Bwipo was getting more and more nervous as they were stepping closer to the metal doors. He did want to see the wonderful view on top of the tower but his body was already rejecting the idea.   
“Hum, just so you know, I’m afraid of heights.”  
“Oh.” replied sOAZ, unsure of the reaction he should have.   
After a moment of silence, he added:   
“Are you gonna be okay?”  
“Yeah, I mean, it’s just a bad moment to go through.”  
sOAZ nodded, letting his gaze wander on the floor. He was not into the idea of patting Bwipo’s shoulder to soothe his fear. It wasn’t anybody’s fault if sOAZ broke his arm and Bwipo shone brighter on key games this year. But it gave sOAZ a persistent sense of unfairness. That’s why in this moment, he wasn’t against the idea of being unfair to his teammate by letting him struggle on his own. 

The elevator bell rang as the doors opened. It was quite a big elevator: eight other people hopped in with the pro players. Bwipo tried to stay in the middle, not to be too close from the windows, but the group movement forced him to go in a corner. Or was it sOAZ? Bwipo sensed a hint of suspicion and anger rising inside him. But the elevator initiated its movement, letting a wave of fear crash in his stomach, sweeping away any other feeling. He tried to focus on the ceiling, but he couldn’t help seeing the elevation in the corner of his field of view. He saw the tower from outside, he knew how incredibly high it was. The thought of it gave him nausea. _This is gonna be so long_. He decided to close his eyes. The ascending movement was still unsettling, but it felt less bad.   
"Can we talk about anything? It would really help." asked Bwipo to his teammate, keeping his eyelids shut.  
He couldn't see how reluctant sOAZ looked at the idea of finding a conversation subject with him.   
"I don't know, what do you wanna talk about?"  
"Hgh...Bootcamp I guess?"  
Bwipo knew it wasn’t the cleverest idea but his mind was not in its most creative shape. sOAZ shrugged.   
"Okay, what about it?"  
"It was mostly choke, right?" A bitter smile formed on Bwipo’s lips. "I hope we can do better next time."  
"Yeah, me too."  
sOAZ didn’t put much effort into elaborating his answer. A silence followed this flat discussion.   
"Those weeks are pretty discouraging. But it also gives me more energy to-- " Caught in his talking, Bwipo opened his eyes for two second, which caused a new fear wave to crash inside him. He stopped talking and closed his eyes again. sOAZ repressed a smile. After another pause, the French re-engaged the conversation:  
"But we did some pretty good plays, didn't we?"  
"Yeah...yeah we did. Especially you. The game against Damwon on day two, you were just insane."  
sOAZ froze.   
"Oh stop it." he tried to smile.  
"Seriously, dude. I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier. Maybe it would have made a difference during bootcamp."  
The French looked away. Bwipo was in a state where he could not think too much, so what he was saying could only be pure honesty. No one gave sOAZ positive feedback during the bootcamp, and honestly, the inverse was also true. He hated to admit it, but the Belgian’s comment made him feel _seen_. At such a difficult point in his career, sOAZ appreciated it particularly. He thought they were not meant to be friends, but in this moment, he realized that they never really had the opportunity to break the ice. He realized that maybe there was more than unspoken spite and rivalry to see in this guy. Maybe the enemy in his own team was not that much of an enemy. 

The elevator finally stopped on top of the tower. Bwipo reopened his eyes and let a sigh of relief come out as they joined a stable floor again. His relief was brief, since he saw parts of this floor were windows too.  
“Oh god.”  
He spontaneously grabbed his teammate’s arm, desperately wanting to hold on to something. sOAZ had a genuine laugh and Bwipo realized how inappropriate it was. He parted from the French but his gaze fell on another piece of window on the floor. Then, he saw chairs in the middle of the room, away from any unsettling view.   
“Do you mind if we sit for a minute?” he asked.   
sOAZ nodded negatively. They sat and Bwipo felt as if he could finally breathe again. The Belgian leaned against the back of his chair, while the French placed his elbows on his thighs, folding his hands. He turned his head towards his teammate and the two toplaners locked their pair of brown eyes for long seconds. They were not smiling. They were just truly and fully looking at each other, for the first time. 

But soon, Bwipo’s gaze caught the familiar faces of their four teammates coming their way.   
“Oh now I see who stole my man away.” started Hylissang, with an accusing look towards sOAZ.  
“Hey, you abandoned your man when he needed you! Where were you?” protested the Belgian.  
“We went to the Ghibli shop.” said Broxah.   
“Oh. I guess I can only forgive you then.”  
“Come and look at the sight with me.” asked Hylissang, pulling Bwipo by the arms.   
The two friends carefully walked towards the window. The view was stunning. The city looked like a black ocean with rocks of various heights. Millions of light points were piercing this ocean, mostly yellow and orange. Some lights were placed freely in the dark area; others followed very clear paths, leaving the viewer guessing if it was a building, or a bridge, or unknown magical shapes. The black sea had various colorful points as well, red, pink, blue, and green. From here, the friends still sensed Tokyo’s liveliness. The city definitely kept living after the sun disappeared.   
“Here we are. You could see Tokyo at night.” said Bwipo.  
Discomfort was written on his face, but his eyes expressed sincere joy. Hylissang was glad to be by his side in such an incredible place, admiring the artificial and colorful stars of the city. He smiled at him and hugged him with one arm, still facing the view.   
“We can’t see, but Mount Fuji is in this direction.”  
“That’s crazy. I feel so small.”  
This was the kind of place which reminded people of time passing by. The mountain rose from the ground ages ago, the city was built a few centuries away, and everything kept changing. As all six Fnatic members gathered to look at the view, they seized this idea, and it left them thinking about where they were in their lives. 

. . . . . .

After a very appreciated night at the hotel, the pro players had one last destination before taking the plane. They all went to the Ueno Park together. It was a vast pak, and there were not many people here this morning. It felt weird but quite good for the pro players to have a little escape in nature. They walked in the snowy paths with pretty lamps lined on the sides of the alleys. The lake was not frozen; the Fnatic members could see a few ducks swimming. 

They met a shrine, which was beautiful in itself, but all the more with the snow on its roof and on its lion statues. Nearby, a man was keeping a little stand. He waved at them, inviting them to join him. He greeted them in English, before suggesting to make wishes in the shrine. He explained the tradition of writing wishes on wooden plaques, suspending them in the shrine so that the legendary horse messenger would carry them to the gods. The Fnatic members did not all have the same beliefs, but one thing was sure: becoming League of Legends professionals made them superstitious. That’s how they ended up buying wooden pieces, before sitting on the floor near the shrine to think about the wish they wanted to make. The plaques were made of a light brown wood, had a rectangular shape and a little wool string meant to be hung in the shrine. Broxah was the only one who had a pen, but since he wasn’t the fastest to find what to write, his pen went by all his teammates’ hands before returning to him. Caps and Rekkles were the fastest to find what they wished for the most. The four others took more time, but each one progressively walked in the shrine. sOAZ was the last one to stand, even after Broxah. The six friends placed their plaques on the dedicated wooden shelf, their wishes joining hundreds of others, in hundreds of languages, all gathered here, forming regular lines of plaques, lines of hope. The pro players carefully avoided looking at each other’s wish not to jinx them. And finally, it was time to go. 

They would all keep a sweet memory of these expressway holidays. 

And one by one, all of their wishes would come true. 

_I wish to win a match against Faker._ -Caps

_I wish to have a healthy, long-lasting relationship._ -Bwipo

_I wish to make it to Worlds again._ -Broxah

_I wish to have a long career ahead of me._ -sOAZ

_I wish to go to Worlds with Bwipo again._ -Hylissang

_I wish to win Worlds._ -Rekkles

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading <3 I've never been to Japan, I hope it didn’t feel too far off!


End file.
